Performance evaluation of general public hospitals in territories of the Former Yugoslavia: An ecological study using the Pabon Lasso model

Background Measuring hospital performance is an area of great importance due to limited resources. Additionally, hospital activities are vital during emergencies providing care under pressure of external factors. Aim This study aimed at analysing performances of general public hospitals from territories of the Former Yugoslavia. Method This ecological study includes 99 hospitals from 6 territories based on annual reports of institutions in charge of territorial health data. The Pabon Lasso method was used, considering hospitals in the third quadrant of the plot as top‐performing in the territory. A particular focus was on performance changes during the pandemic caused by SARS‐COV‐2 coronavirus. Results and conclusion There is considerable heterogeneity in the length of stay, bed occupancy and turnover rate between territories. The proportion of top‐performing hospitals varied between 20% and 43%, providing between 16% and 69% of inpatients episodes within the territory. However, countries did not differ in how their hospitals were distributed across the four quadrants of the Pabon Lasso plot. Comparison of Croatian and Kosovar data from 2019 to 2020 suggested a significant decrease in turnover and occupancy rates, but most hospitals retained their plot quartiles from the previous year. This supports the finding that there were no significant changes in hospital performance based on the Pabon Lasso method. The analysis showed significant room for performance improvement and highlighted the ability of the Croatian and Kosovar hospitals and their health systems to maintain efficiency during emergencies.